Hendersonville City Council and staff — armed with iPads, laptops, pens and pads — convened for a roundtable discussion Friday to tackle an action plan of goals for the next two years.

By Emily WeaverTimes-News Staff Writer

Hendersonville City Council and staff — armed with iPads, laptops, pens and pads — convened for a roundtable discussion Friday to tackle an action plan of goals for the next two years.Topping the list were finding new life for an abandoned mill building, calming traffic on Fifth Avenue and improving Main Street.City council agreed to spend about $16,000 more than the $3 million they had budgeted for Main Street improvements to use brick pavers for crosswalks instead of cheaper alternatives. Councilman Steve Caraker said the bricks will last longer.City Engineer Brent Detwiler gave the board four options for materials they could use: legitimate brick pavers with concrete borders, a stamped asphalt that gives the appearance of bricks, thermoplastic sheets with a brick design, or thermoplastic white stripes (like the city’s current crosswalks). The white thermoplastic stripes would be the cheapest avenue. Detwiler said they had not heard back from the N.C. Department of Transportation about whether the thermoplastic sheets would be a material approved for roads they have to maintain. The stamped asphalt and brick pavers would be acceptable materials, but the city would have to maintain the bricks.Caraker said tmaintaining the bricks with occasional pressure-washings would not be hard.“This is like putting cheap lipstick on a beautiful woman,” he said, holding a sample of the preformed thermoplastic sheet of faux bricks.“We’ve added money for all kinds of things,” he said. “It’s a shame to cheap it up at the end.”“That looks more historic anyway,” said Mayor Pro-tem Jeff Collis.Council members agreed that the bricks should be used at all of the proposed crosswalks along Main Street and the side avenues. The crosswalks will be installed with the final current streetscape improvements, which are currently under way. Councilman Ron Stephens suggested the city also improve its spotty Wi-Fi. A capital improvement plan earmarked $35,000 of next year’s budget to improve and expand Wi-Fi capabilities downtown, which have been strictly limited since the start of streetscape improvements. City IT Director Allen Edge said they installed Wi-Fi antennas on the tops of buildings downtown about eight years ago. It worked when the city had above-ground power lines. Now that the power lines have been moved underground during the streetscape improvement projects, however, the antennas have had to come down to street level, severely limiting their signal.“We’ve got Wi-Fi down there, but it’s pretty much in name only,” he said.The $35,000 would be used to replace the city’s current antennas with ones that could attach to light poles. Stephens said the city should go ahead and replace the antennas now along with the streetscape improvements instead of waiting until next year’s budget.“Hardly a week goes by that somebody doesn’t complain about that,” he said about Wi-Fi availability. “We need to do it so tourists can have use of that,” he added. “If we wait to finish it in August or September, the season will be over.”Traffic calming measuresCity council members also directed staff to study traffic-calming measures for Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues and from Blythe to Washington streets.Detwiler said the no-parking signs along Fifth Avenue have been removed as directed by the council. Working with consultants for a fee of $5,200, he said they could collect data, conduct a public meeting with “property stakeholders” and present their findings to council at an upcoming meeting.“People either use Fifth or Third (avenues) to get to Blythe Street,” Collis said, adding that “whatever you do to calm stuff of Fifth (Avenue)” will cause drivers to use surrounding streets instead. Stephens asked about the possibility of adding four-way stops.“I think they tend to not look at four-way stops as a traffic calming (measure),” Detwiler said, adding that some drivers speed between the signs.Some don’t stop at all, added Mayor Barbara Volk. Interim City Manager A. Lee Galloway said that higher emissions can be generated from stop-and-go traffic. The Department of Transportation has become interested in using roundabouts to slow traffic down but keep it moving, he added.New life for old mill?Council members agreed to move forward with a request for proposals set to go out Monday to find a new use for the old Grey Hosiery Mill, with proposals due by April 15. The 1915 Grey Hosiery Mill has fallen into disrepair after years of neglect. The historic property has been under the city’s ownership since the 1980s and has been envisioned as a conference center, a center for the arts and a residential development in the past.Galloway said a lady he spoke with expressed interest in converting the mill into a possible retail facility that would tie into downtown. The top questions they pose to all interested parties in requests, he said, are “what’s your idea? Can you deliver? And, have you delivered (on ideas like this) elsewhere?”The last request for proposals went out almost three years ago, he said. “There was a desire expressed to get this matter up for discussion again, with hopes that an improving economy and the passage of time may lead to some new ideas and proposals for the City Council to consider,” according to a memo from Galloway.This year’s solicitation would “attempt to gather ideas and concepts for the council to consider, while at the same time emphasizing that those submitting proposals must be in a position to deliver... within a reasonable period of time,” Galloway noted.According to the request for proposals, “The City Council desires that proposals be consistent with the city’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan, which identifies potential land uses as hospitality, retail, restaurant, office and residential; however, the city is open to all proposals and ideas, including artistically related, educational, light industry and manufacturing.”Reach Weaver at emily.weaver@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7867.